Typing or otherwise entering information into a computing device can be cumbersome and time consuming where each individual word must be typed in its entirety or handwritten in its entirety in the case of electronic handwriting input methods or spoken accurately in the case of speech recognition input methods. Typing information on small mobile devices can be particularly difficult due to the decreased size or form factor of the mobile device and associated keyboard. With mobile devices, often some type of modified typing method, for example thumb typing, is required on a very small keyboard, or typing text via a twelve key keypad is required.
In response to these and other input difficulties, input methods have been developed that provide word prediction or word suggestions as a user types in order to reduce the number of keys that must be pressed. Prior solutions often make use of static dictionaries containing language dictionaries and lists of words that the user had previously entered using the input method. While these solutions may help the user in general text input, the words that are predicted are not always in the context of the current task the user is trying to complete. For example, according to current data input solutions, a word prediction user interface that changes after each key press may be provided, but if a user wants to type a word such as “threat,” the user must type a number of characters, for example, “thre” before the prediction user interface shows the word “threat” desired by the user. And, the prediction user interface may show a number of unhelpful words, such as “three,” “thread,” and the like because the words are being retrieved from a non-contextual source such as a dictionary. Unfortunately, other words such as names and technical terms are not likely to be included in an available input prediction dictionary, and thus, these words and terms will not be predicted at all. For example, if the user desires to type a person's name, for example, “Alexandro Giordano,” the user may be required to type each and every character making up the name because such a name is not likely to be included in an input prediction dictionary accessible by the input method in use.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.